Super-light Nike Flywire shoes to make Olympic debut

Sportswear maker Nike looks set to steal the limelight at this year's summer Beijing Olympics with its latest innovation, the Flywire track shoes. The company will supply the U.S. track and field team with two pieces of Flywire footwear--the Zoom Victory Spikes and Zoom Matumbo.

U.S. track and fielders will sport the Zoom Victory Spike, currently Nike's lightest middle-distance track spike, the company says.
Crave Asia

Already creating quite a buzz in the industry with its revolutionary lightweight construction, the Flywire design is said to be inspired by the cables from a suspension bridge. It basically makes use of a strong Vectran thread arranged in a fan-shaped pattern at anchor points around the shoe. The result is a shoe that's extremely light, yet reportedly cheap and easy to manufacture.

But, just how light are the new Flywire track shoes? The Zoom Matumbo will be Nike's lightest distance track shoes at about .2 pounds per pair, while the Zoom Victory Spikes for middle distance events like the 800m and 5,000m will also weigh just about .2 pounds.

For the record, Michael Johnson's famed pair of golden track shoes at the 1996 Atlanta Games tipped the scales at about a quarter of a pound, which is lightweight even by today's standards.

Nike has made the Flywire technology available commercially with the recent launch of its Flywire series of running shoes in the U.S. The company plans to release the track shoes to consumers later in October. Running-shoe technology is coming a long way these days--have a look at these biodegradable shoes by Brooks.